Williams Just Might Wind Up Back In Nfl

July 9, 1985|By Barry Cooper of the Sentinel Staff

Those of you who used to arrive at Tampa Stadium with sewing needles firmly imbedded in the temple of your Doug Williams voodoo doll will take solace in knowing that the demons still are haunting this young man.

They hiss at him on sweltering spring afternoons when the Arizona heat is so unrelenting that even the lizards scurry to the shade of gently swaying cactus plants.

They curse him in the mornings, too, and trumpet their presence through Williams' battered knees, which creak almost like the awkward closing of a car door that doesn't fit.

Williams, a quarterback who once was both the most booed and the finest athlete the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had, now toils for the USFL Arizona Outlaws, a team that lost some $7 million this season and may have to high-tail it out of existence lest it be rounded up by a posse of bill collectors.

That Williams, 30, could be playing the final years of his pro career with such an unstable outfit seems awfully unfair.

It was only a few autumns ago that he was being touted as the next Terry Bradshaw or Roger Staubach, if only he could eliminate what some perceived as bonehead mistakes.

The biggest mental blunder currently charged to Williams is his heated decision to jump leagues two years ago. That was when the Buccaneers doubled over in laughter at Williams' demand for a $700,000 contract, and quickly bid the quarterback a terse farewell.

The merits of that separation have been well argued, so we will not attempt another debate. Suffice it to say that since the divorce, the Bucs and Williams have labored in relative mediocrity.

But for Williams, playing football is no longer much fun anyway, at least not as much as it was when he played for the Bucs and gave 110 percent on every play. Now he offers only 100 percent effort, provided his knees allow such.

Through his two USFL seasons, he has at least been able to play well enough to keep the demons at bay, though, and for him, that is enough.

''My ego is not messing with me at all,'' he said by telephone the other day. ''I have never been an egotistical kind of person at all, so it doesn't bother me that I am not playing in the National Football League.

''You know, all my friends that I hang around and the people who really are close to me keep saying, 'Boy, Doug, it's too bad you aren't playing in the NFL.'

''Well, I don't think like that. If it had been my decision to switch leagues I would have a lot of regrets right now. But it wasn't my decision. My hand was forced by the Buccaneers.''

Though he won't admit to it, Williams may be ready to deal from another deck. The gigantic rumor mill that spins stories throughout the USFL reports that Williams may try to get out of his contract with the Outlaws and return to the NFL.

Provided the Buccaneers release his rights -- surely they would not want him back -- Williams would play for the New Orleans Saints, who are close to his Baker, La., home, or the Los Angeles Raiders, a team Williams has long admired.

It is not an implausible story. The Outlaws owe Williams at least another year on his hefty contract, which will pay him $450,000 in 1986.

Thirty percent of that salary -- $135,000 -- is due Williams in March. Chances are the financially strapped Outlaws would relish the chance to duck that obligation and allow Williams to return to the big leagues.

But Williams isn't as trigger happy as he once was. This is one issue he is not willing to force.

''I am not going to the Outlaws and say, 'Hey, I want out,' '' Williams said. ''Financially, I am pretty much set and that's what I came to the USFL for, to find financial security.

''I really don't know if I will come back to the NFL. It would probably be a month, a month and a half into the NFL season before anybody knows what's what with the USFL.''

So for now, Williams hangs out with his friends in Baker and ponders his next address. Arizona again? New Orleans? Los Angeles? Tampa Bay?

Whatever his travels, the demons likely will travel with him. They have always been there. But then, as Williams says, ''the roller coaster ride is a little smoother than it was. It used to be all uphill. Now the roller coaster is going down.''